High frequency wireless communication network

ABSTRACT

There is disclosed a method of operating a radio node in a wireless communication network. The method includes communicating using a first set of one or more signaling beams, wherein communicating includes performing beamforming for one or more signaling beams of the first set based on a set of beam signaling characteristics. Each beam signaling characteristic pertains to a reference beam. The disclosure also pertains to related devices and methods.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure pertains to wireless communication technology, inparticular for high frequencies.

BACKGROUND

For future wireless communication systems, use of higher frequencies areconsidered, which allow large bandwidths to be used for communication.However, the use of such higher frequencies brings new problems, e.g.regarding physical properties and timing.

SUMMARY

It is an object of this disclosure to provide improved approaches ofhandling wireless communication, in particular in regard to handlingdelay spread of signaling and/or timing. The approaches are particularlysuitable for millimeter wave communication, in particular for radiocarrier frequencies around and/or above 52.6 GHz, which may beconsidered high radio frequencies and/or millimeter waves. The radionodes and/or network described herein may operate in wideband, e.g. witha carrier bandwidth of 1 GHz or more, or 2 GHz or more, or even larger.In some cases, operation may be based on an OFDM waveform or a SC-FDMwaveform (e.g., downlink and/or uplink). However, operation based on asingle carrier waveform, e.g. SC-FDE, may be considered for downlinkand/or uplink. In general, different waveforms may be used for differentcommunication directions.

The approaches are particularly advantageously implemented in a 5^(th)Generation (5G) telecommunication network or 5G radio access technologyor network (RAT/RAN), in particular according to 3GPP (3^(rd) GenerationPartnership Project, a standardisation organization). A suitable RAN mayin particular be a RAN according to NR, for example release 15 or later,or LTE Evolution. However, the approaches may also be used with otherRAT, for example future 5.5G or 6G systems or IEEE based systems.

There is disclosed a method of operating a radio node in a wirelesscommunication network. The method comprises communicating using a firstset of one or more signaling beams, wherein communicating comprisesperforming beamforming for one or more signaling beams of the first setbased on a set of beam signaling characteristics, each beam signalingcharacteristic pertaining to a reference beam.

There is also disclosed a radio node for a wireless communicationnetwork, the radio node being adapted to communicate using one or moresignaling beams, wherein communicating comprises performing beamformingfor the one or more signaling beams based on a set of beam signalingcharacteristics, each beam signaling characteristic pertaining to areference beam. The radio node may comprise, and/or be adapted toutilise, processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, in particular atransmitter and/or receiver and/or transceiver, for communicating and/orbeamforming.

The approaches described in here allow improved handling of beamformingin particular for high-frequency networks and/or in cases with highdelay spread.

The radio node may be a network node, or in some cases a wirelessdevice, e.g. a terminal or UE. Communicating using a set of signalingbeams may comprise transmitting and/or receiving using the set of beams.A beam of a set of beams may be a transmission beam or a reception beam.A reception beam generally may correspond to a transmission beam, e.g.in shape and/or solid angle distribution, and vice versa. It may beconsidered that a signaling beam corresponds to a reference beam, e.g.in shape and/or precoding and/or digital beamforming; a signaling beamcorresponding to a reference beam may be based on the reference beam,and may for example be produced by additional beamforming processing,e.g. analog beamforming on a digitally formed beam. In general, a setmay comprise one or more than one elements.

In general, the set of beam signaling characteristics may be provided tothe radio node with a measurement report, and/or it may determine, e.g.measure, it themselves.

A reference beam may be a beam comprising reference signaling, based onwhich for example the set of beam signaling characteristics may bedetermined, e.g. measured and/or estimated. A signaling beam maycomprise signaling like control signaling and/or data signaling and/orreference signaling. A reference beam may be transmitted by the radionode, in which case one or more beam signaling characteristics may bereported to it from a receiver, e.g. a wireless device. However, in somecases it may be received by the radio node from another radio node orwireless device. In this case, one or more beam signalingcharacteristics may be determined by the radio node. A signaling beammay be a transmission beam, or a reception beam.

The first set of signaling characteristics may comprise a plurality ofsubsets of beam signaling characteristics, each subset pertaining to adifferent reference beam. Thus, a reference beam may be associated todifferent beam signaling characteristics.

A beam signaling characteristic, respectively a subset, may representand/or indicate a signal strength and/or signal quality and/or delayspread of a beam and/or be associated with received and/or measuredsignaling carried on a beam. A set of beam signaling characteristics mayin particular pertain to, and/or indicate, a number and/or list and/ororder of beams with best (e.g., lowest mean delay and/or lowestspread/range) delay spread, and/or of strongest and/or best qualitybeams, e.g. with associated delay spread. Thus, beams of the first setmay be optimized. A beam signaling characteristic, or a subset of such,may be represented by delay spread information, e.g. pertaining to meanor main delay and/or delay spread and/or range and/or one or more otherparameters.

A reference beam may in general be one of a second set of referencebeams, the second set of reference beams being associated to the set ofbeam signaling characteristics and/or the first set of signaling beams.The sets being associated may refer to at least one beam of the firstset being associated and/or corresponding to the second set, e.g. beingbased on it, for example by having the same analog or digitalbeamforming parameters and/or precoder and/or the same shape beforeanalog beamforming, and/or being a modified form thereof, e.g. byperforming additional analog beamforming.

A beam signaling characteristic may be based on measurement/s performedon reference signaling carried on the reference beam it pertains to. Themeasurement/s may be performed by the radio node, or another node orwireless device. The use of reference signaling allows improved accuracyand/or gauging of the measurements.

It may be considered that a reference beam carries reference signaling,the reference signaling having a signaling structure comprising at leastone non-transmission time interval and at least one transmission timeinterval. The transmission time intervals may correspond to a symboltime interval, or a part or multitude thereof. This structure allowscovering even long delay spreads.

In some variants, it may be considered that a reference beam carriesreference signaling, the reference signaling having a signalingstructure covering in time the impulse response of the propagationchannel to the reference signaling. The signaling structure may compriseone or more cyclic prefixes and reference signaling. If one cyclicprefix is used, it may be a prolonged cyclic prefix.

In general, communicating may comprise utilising a numerology and/or bebased on an OFDM and/or SC-FDM based waveform. The numerology maydetermine the length of a symbol time interval and/or the duration of acyclic prefix. The approaches described herein are particularly suitableto OFDM/SC-FDM, to ensure orthogonality, in particular subcarrierorthogonality, in corresponding systems, but may be used for otherwaveforms.

Communicating may comprise utilising a waveform with cyclic prefix. Thecyclic prefix may be based on a numerology, and may help keepingsignaling orthogonal.

It may generally be considered that a beam of the first set of beamscorresponds to a reference beam. The reference beam may allow processingto estimate channel and/or delay spread pertaining to the beam of thefirst set, e.g. allow compensating and/or optimizing the beam, forexample by including additional beamforming processing to limit and/oreliminate sidelobe/s, for example by analog beamforming.

A beam of the first set of signaling beams may for example be producedby performing analog beamforming on a beam corresponding to a referencebeam. This allows efficient postprocessing of a digitally formed beam,without requiring changes to a digital beamforming chain and/or withoutrequiring changes to a standard defining beam forming precoders.

It may be considered that a beam of the first set of signaling beams isproduced by hybrid beamforming, e.g. by analog beamforming performed ona beam representation or beam formed based on digital beamforming.

There is also described a program product comprising instructionscausing processing circuitry to control and/or perform a method asdescribed herein. Moreover, a carrier medium arrangement carrying and/orstoring a program product as described herein is considered.

It should be noted that a discussion of a beam being further processed,e.g. by analog beamforming, refers to a representation of the beam, e.g.in a digital system. This may lead to a form of a transmission beam thatis not identical to the digital representation, or to a digitallyprocessed received beam not corresponding to the actually transmittedbeam that was received. It should also be noted that for reception beamforming, analog beamforming may be preprocessing before digitalbeamforming. Also, any reference to the characteristics of a received ortransmitted beam may be considered to pertain to the signaling and/orsignals carried by the beam.

Delay spread information and/or a measurement report may representand/or indicate at least one of mean delay, and/or delay spread, and/ordelay distribution, and/or delay spread distribution, and/or delayspread range, and/or relative delay spread, and/or energy (or power)distribution, and/or impulse response to received signaling, and/or thepower delay profile of the received signals, and/or power delay profilerelated parameters of the received signal. A mean delay may representthe mean value and/or an averaged value of the delay spread, which maybe weighted or unweighted. A distribution may be distribution overtime/delay, e.g. of received power and/or energy of a signal. A rangemay indicate an interval of the delay spread distribution overtime/delay, which may cover a predetermined percentage of the delayspread respective received energy or power, e.g. 50% or more, 75% ormore, 90% or more, or 100%. A relative delay spread may indicate arelation to a threshold delay, e.g. of the mean delay, and/or a shiftrelative to an expected and/or configured timing, e.g. a timing at whichthe signaling would have been expected based on the scheduling, and/or arelation to a cyclic prefix duration (which may be considered on form ofa threshold). Energy distribution or power distribution may pertain tothe energy or power received over the time interval of the delay spread.Power delay profile may pertain representations of the received signals,or the received signals energy/power, across time/delay. Power delayprofile related parameters may pertain to metrics computed from thepower delay profile. Different values and forms of delay spreadinformation and/or report may be used, allowing a wide range ofcapabilities. The kind of information represented by a measurementreport may be predefined, or be configured or configurable, e.g. with ameasurement configuration and/or reference signaling configuration, inparticular with higher layer signaling like RRC or MAC signaling and/orphysical layer signaling like DCI signaling.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings are provided to illustrate concepts and approachesdescribed herein, and are not intended to limit their scope. Thedrawings comprise:

FIG. 1, showing an exemplary impulse response associated with a signalrelative to a cyclic prefix;

FIG. 2, showing exemplary reference signaling;

FIG. 3, showing further exemplary reference signaling;

FIG. 4, showing further exemplary reference signaling;

FIG. 5, showing an exemplary beamforming scenario;

FIG. 6, showing another exemplary beamforming scenario;

FIG. 7, showing an exemplary radio node; and

FIG. 8, showing another exemplary radio node.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In general, radio signaling propagating through a space in a propagationchannel may undergo different effects distorting the signal. Some ofthese effects can lead to a signal being spread out in time and/or beingdelayed, e.g. delay dispersion, and/or multi-path, if a signal travelsbetween a transmitter and receiver via multiple paths, which mayrepresent different propagation channels with different effects on thesignaling, which might add up for a receiver. This can lead to thesignal being spread out over time, e.g. having increased or shifted(relative to a delay expected from pure travelling time of light acrossa path) mean or main delay and a large delay spread or delaydistribution. In general, delay spread information may be considered torepresent a time distribution of signaling, in particular of receivedsignaling. Delay spread may be considered to be represented by delayspread information. Delay spread information may indicate and/orrepresent a parametrisation of such a time distribution and/or delayand/or delay spread, in particular mean delay or main delay and/or adelay distribution. A delay distribution (also referred to as, orrepresented by, delay spread) may for example indicate in which delayinterval around the mean delay or main delay a certain percentage of thesignal or energy of the signal is distributed, e.g. one of, or morethan, 50% or 75% or 90%. The delay spread is associated to the impulseresponse of a propagation channel, a response or output a receiverprovides to specific received signaling without other signalinginterfering. A delay spread may generally be considered to correspond adistribution over time, e.g. of energy and/or power of a signal, and/ormay correspond to an impulse response. A mean delay may be determinedbased on the delay spread distribution.

In many wireless communication systems, in particular such based on OFDMwaveform or SC-FDM waveforms, cyclic prefixes are used in signaling. Acyclic prefix is a repetition of the end of a signal added to thebeginning of a signal. A cyclic prefix allows a receiver to be robustagainst time delays (e.g., from multiple sources or multiple-patheffects) and/or loss of orthogonalisation of signals. However, if thedelay spread of signaling (or a sufficiently large percentage thereof)is larger in time domain than the cyclic prefix, synchronisation and/ororthogonalisation properties may be lost. This is not a problem for mostsystems operating in carrier frequencies below, as the typical delayspreads are smaller than the cyclic prefixes used, even though cyclicprefixes typically are significantly shorter than a symbol time intervalto limit signaling overhead. With the introduction of high carrierfrequencies, increasingly larger bandwidths may be used for signaling.For example, in 5G, carrier bandwidths are usually limited to 100 MHz orseveral 100 MHz, whereas for high frequencies bandwidths of 1 GHz or 2GHz or even more are considered. With increasing bandwidth, theassociated symbol time interval in a numerology will decrease, and,accordingly, cyclic prefixes will be shorter as well. Delay spread forsignaling at these frequencies, at least for example for a beam and/orone path and/or for delay dispersion, may be independent or largelyindependent to the carrier frequency, or at least do not follow thetiming of symbols and cyclic prefixes proportionally. Thus, for highcarrier frequencies, e.g. mm-wave carrier frequencies, the delay spreadof signaling may increasingly be larger than the cyclic prefix duration.This can lead to loss of orthogonality between subcarriers and/ortemporal interference between adjacent OFDM symbols.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a normalized impulse response coveringseveral 10⁻⁷s. The impulse response is measured approximately across 1.3GHz of bandwidth. OFDM signaling operating with such bandwidth wouldyield 144-samples CP lengths of about 1×10⁻⁷s. As can be seen, thecyclic prefix in this example cover 1×10⁻⁷s, between 0 and 1 on thedelay axis, which corresponds to a (144-samples) short cyclic prefixassociated with a high frequency carrier/numerology. A significant partof the impulse response lies outside the cyclic prefix, which will leadto the above mentioned issues with the signaling. It should be notedthat the cyclic prefix for NR systems currently typically is above 1microsecond, which would cover the whole impulse response.

FIG. 2 shows exemplary reference signaling in a resource grid, e.g. aslot grid for NR. The x-axis represents time, each block in the gridcorresponds to one symbol time interval. The y-axis representsfrequency, each block corresponds to one subcarrier. Accordingly, eachblock represents one resource element. The grids shown to the left andto the right each represent one physical resource block, 12 subcarriers,in a slot with 14 symbols. Other time/frequency structures may beconsidered, in particular if instead of OFDM/SC-FDM, another waveform isconsidered, e.g. a single carrier waveform like a SC-DFE waveform. Inthe examples shown in FIG. 2, the dark resource elements may representresource elements carrying reference signaling, e.g. CSI-RS or SRS orother forms of reference signaling. The reference signaling shown maycover 1 symbol in time (left) or two symbols (or even more symbols) intime (right), which may be neighboring and/or adjacent. The referencesignaling may be located in different symbols of a slot than the lastones as exemplarily shown in FIG. 2. Differently colored symbols orresource elements on the same subcarrier may indicate different symbolson the resource elements (e.g., a zeroed element and a non-zeroedelement, and/or shifted symbols), or the same symbol being repeated.

In general, a UE or measuring radio node may be configured with areference signaling configuration, for example via control signaling,e.g. higher layer signaling like RRC signaling and/or MAC signaling,and/or physical layer signaling, e.g. DCI signaling. A referencesignaling configuration may generally indicate resources for referencesignaling, and/or a sequence (e.g., of modulation symbols), which may bemapped to the reference signaling resources of the indicated resources,and/or a cover code and/or cyclic shift to be applied to the sequenceand/or resources, and/or the timing (e.g., on a slot or symbol level) ofthe reference signaling, and/or timing of providing a measurement reportpertaining to the reference signaling and/or may indicate and/or maypertain to one or more beams, which may be transmission and/or receptionbeams. The measurement report may be periodic and/or semi-static, oraperiodic and/or dynamic, e.g. triggered by and/or in response tophysical layer signaling, e.g. a scheduling grant or schedulingassignment.

Resources for reference signaling may be represented by a set ofresources, which may include resources, in particular resource elements,intended to carry and/or carrying reference signaling and/or associatedsymbols (e.g., modulation symbols). A measuring radio node may performmeasurement on the reference signaling, based on which measurementinformation may be determined, e.g. in the form of a measurement report.A measurement report may be transmitted to the network, e.g. a networknode, e.g. based on the reference signaling and/or a measurementconfiguration and/or a reference signaling configuration and/or controlsignaling like DCI or SCI triggering the measurement and/or measurementreport. Reference signaling may be arranged in frequency space in a combstructure, wherein between two subcarriers or resource blocks carryingreference signaling and/or a modulation symbol thereof, there is atleast one subcarrier or resource block not carrying reference signaling,e.g. empty or muted, or carrying other signaling, for example datasignaling or control signaling.

In some variants, reference signaling may be and/or comprise CSI-RS,e.g. transmitted by the network node. In other variants, the referencesignaling may be transmitted by a UE, e.g. to a network node or otherUE, in which case it may comprise and/or be Sounding ReferenceSignaling. Other, e.g. new, forms of reference signaling may beconsidered and/or used. In general, a modulation symbol of referencesignaling respectively a resource element carrying it may be associatedto a cyclic prefix.

Measurement information may generally comprise information determinedand/or derived based on measurement/s, e.g. by sampling and/orprocessing measured samples, for example combining and/or averagingand/or weighing and/or classifying (e.g., by comparing with a threshold)and/or adding and/or integrating and/or differentiating and/orperforming one or more transformations and/or evaluations and/orestimations. A measurement report may comprise and/or represent and/orbe based on measurement information. Measurement information may pertainto one or more beams, each of which may carry reference signaling,and/or may pertain to a beam at different times, e.g. when the beam isswept, and/or at different slots or transmission timing structures. Thebeams may be beams transmitted by a radio node, in particular a networknode. Measurements may be performed based on one or more receptionbeams, or without. It may be considered that measurements are performedbased on beam pairs, each beam pair comprising a transmission beam and areception beam. A reception beam may be used by a measuring radio nodefor reception. A measurement report and/or measurement information mayindicate a transmission beam and/or reception beam and/or beam pair usedfor measurement.

In some cases, a measuring radio node may be adapted to operate based onmeasurement information, in particular transmit and/or receive based onmeasurement information. For example, it may adapt its transmissiontiming and/or beamforming (e.g., reception beamforming and/ortransmission beamforming) based on measurement information and/or whichinformation or data to transmit (e.g., from a buffer and/or one or morelogical channels and/or associated to different bearers), for example tocompensate for measured delay.

In some cases, a radio node may be adapted to communicate with ameasuring radio node based on a received measurement report.Communicating based on a measurement report and/or delay spreadinformation may for example comprise scheduling transmission to and/orfrom a measuring radio node and/or for one or more channels based on thereport or information, and/or performing beamforming (e.g., receptionbeamforming and/or transmission beamforming) for communication based onthe report or information, and/or performing link adaptation (e.g.,adapting a MCS) based on the report or information, and/or changingand/or adapting and/or configuring bandwidth and/or bandwidth partand/or numerology based on the report or information. The communicationmay be between the measuring radio node and the radio node.

It may be considered that reference signaling cover in time one or moresymbol time intervals, in particular two symbols, which may be adjacentin time. On each subcarrier carrying reference signaling, at least oneof the symbol time intervals (respectively adjacent resource elements)may carry a non-zero point CSI-RS, and at least one a zero point CSI-RS(which may be muted). The non-zero point CSI-RS (also called CSI-RS) maylead in time.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary corresponding arrangement of referencesignaling. In some variants, two or more of the symbol time intervals(respectively adjacent resource elements) may carry reference signaling,for example a repetition of a modulation symbol, or a shifted version(in modulation/phase space) of the leading one.

FIG. 4 shows further alternatives examples of reference signaling. FIG.4 shows two different versions of reference signaling covering tworesource elements for the same subcarrier. In the upper row, thereference signaling comprises two modulation symbols on adjacent symboltime intervals. To each symbol, there is associated a leading cyclicprefix (indicated CP), to provide a CP/RS combination on each symboltime interval. Accordingly, the modulation symbol parts are separated bythe CP of the second reference symbol. The modulation symbols may becopies of each other, or different. The lower row shows a differentspecial structure for of reference signaling, in which a modulationsymbol covers two symbol time intervals, with one prolonged CP leading,no other CP may be included in the structure. The prolonged CP may be anextended CP, and/or extend over double the time of the normal CP. Thenormal CP may be defined according to a standard and/or associated tothe numerology. It may be considered that the prolonged CP correspondsto two concatenated CPs, and/or the RS (the modulation symbol) maycorrespond to two concatenated symbols and/or RS.

In general, a cyclic prefix may be determined based on the signalingstructure of the symbol to be transmitted, e.g. repeating the tail ofthe signal. Variants with three or more symbol time intervals beingcovered may be considered, e.g. with three CP/RS combinations, or withone CP/RS combination with prolonged CP (which may correspond to two orthree CPs) and one trailing RS covering the rest of the time intervalcovered by the three or more symbol time intervals.

It should be noted that reference signaling structures described for asubcarrier may be used analogously for all subcarriers used forreference signaling, e.g. with different modulation symbols, e.g.according to a configuration and/or sequence. The sequence may ingeneral be an orthogonal sequence, e.g. a Gold or Zadoff-Chu sequence.

In general, the reference signaling structure may be adapted to coverthe (expected) impulse response and/or delay spread distribution. Thus,the delay spread information may be considered to be precise.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary beamforming scenario. In this scenario, atransmitter like a network node 100 with an antenna array may transmit abeam shown with a main lobe and side lobes, e.g. during beam sweeping,representing a set of beams having one beam. The beam may be formed withDFT processing, but other forms of digital and/or analog beamforming maybe considered. The following presentation assumed the beam is used inbeam sweeping, e.g. to set up a communication. However, other theapproaches described herein may be applied to beams used in ongoingcommunication as well. A receiving radio node like a UE or measuringnode may receive a signal from the beam via multiple paths A, B, C. B isthe direct path, A and C represent paths with reflections. It can beseen that side lobes can have a significant contribution in power, andaccordingly can significantly influence the delay spread. The examplesdiscussed in here assume effect from sidelobes of one beam.

However, multi-beam scenarios may also be considered, e.g. when MIMO isused to have two or more beams aimed at one target, or more generally,multiple beams are used. FIG. 5 shows exemplary 3 significant beamsbeing found during a beam, coinciding with the main lobe or a reflectedside lobe being incident on the receiver 10. In this case, the threesignificant beams found correspond to the same beam at different times.The receiver 10 may provide a measurement report representing the beamsfound, which may include delay spread information. Based on themeasurement report, which may be a CSI report, the transmitter 100 mayadapt its beamforming for a set of signaling beams. For examples, analogbeamforming (or digital and/or hybrid beamforming) may be used toeliminate or limit sidelobes. Alternatively, or additionally, a set ofbeams may be adapted to include beams with different sidelobes and/or adifferent sweeping pattern and/or different main lobe directions and/ordifferent sizes and/or shapes.

FIG. 6 shows examples of adapted beamforming. In the upper row, explicitnulling of the side lobes appearing in the found beams has beenperformed. Note that this might come at the price of increasing otherside lobes, which will in this case have negligible effect for thereceiver 10 as there is no strong propagation channel. In this case, thecontribution to the power over the delay spread of the side lobes willbe eliminated. The lower row shows an example in which sidelobes aresuppressed, but not completely eliminated. In this case, there may asmall contribution by the side lobes, which may be acceptable. Suchsmall contribution can be fraction, for example 1% or 5% or 15%, of theoriginal beamformer's sidelobes before adaption.

FIG. 7 schematically shows a radio node, in particular a terminal 10 ora UE (User Equipment). Radio node 10 comprises processing circuitry(which may also be referred to as control circuitry) 20, which maycomprise a controller connected to a memory. Any module of the radionode 10, e.g. a communicating module or determining module, may beimplemented in and/or executable by, the processing circuitry 20, inparticular as module in the controller. Radio node 10 also comprisesradio circuitry 22 providing receiving and transmitting or transceivingfunctionality (e.g., one or more transmitters and/or receivers and/ortransceivers), the radio circuitry 22 being connected or connectable tothe processing circuitry. An antenna circuitry 24 of the radio node 10is connected or connectable to the radio circuitry 22 to collect or sendand/or amplify signals. Radio circuitry 22 and the processing circuitry20 controlling it are configured for cellular communication with anetwork, e.g. a RAN as described herein, and/or for sidelinkcommunication. Radio node 10 may generally be adapted to carry out anyof the methods of operating a radio node like terminal or UE disclosedherein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g.processing circuitry, and/or modules, e.g. software modules. It may beconsidered that the radio node 10 comprises, and/or is connected orconnectable, to a power supply.

FIG. 8 schematically show a radio node 100, which may in particular beimplemented as a network node 100, for example an eNB or gNB or similarfor NR. Radio node 100 comprises processing circuitry (which may also bereferred to as control circuitry) 120, which may comprise a controllerconnected to a memory. Any module, e.g. transmitting module and/orreceiving module and/or configuring module of the node 100 may beimplemented in and/or executable by the processing circuitry 120. Theprocessing circuitry 120 is connected to control radio circuitry 122 ofthe node 100, which provides receiver and transmitter and/or transceiverfunctionality (e.g., comprising one or more transmitters and/orreceivers and/or transceivers). An antenna circuitry 124 may beconnected or connectable to radio circuitry 122 for signal reception ortransmittance and/or amplification. Node 100 may be adapted to carry outany of the methods for operating a radio node or network node disclosedherein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g.processing circuitry, and/or modules. The antenna circuitry 124 may beconnected to and/or comprise an antenna array. The node 100,respectively its circuitry, may be adapted to perform any of the methodsof operating a network node or a radio node as described herein; inparticular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g. processingcircuitry, and/or modules. The radio node 100 may generally comprisecommunication circuitry, e.g. for communication with another networknode, like a radio node, and/or with a core network and/or an internetor local net, in particular with an information system, which mayprovide information and/or data to be transmitted to a user equipment.

Data signaling may be on a data channel, for example on a PDSCH orPSSCH, or on a dedicated data channel, e.g. for low latency and/or highreliability, e.g. a URLLC channel. Control signaling may be on a controlchannel, for example on a common control channel or a PDCCH or PSCCH,and/or comprise one or more DCI messages or SCI messages. Referencesignaling may be associated to control signaling and/or data signaling,e.g. DM-RS and/or PT-RS.

Reference signaling, for example, may comprise DM-RS and/or pilotsignaling and/or discovery signaling and/or synchronisation signalingand/or sounding signaling and/or phase tracking signaling and/orcell-specific reference signaling and/or user-specific signaling, inparticular CSI-RS. Reference signaling in general may be signaling withone or more signaling characteristics, in particular transmission powerand/or sequence of modulation symbols and/or resource distributionand/or phase distribution known to the receiver. Thus, the receiver canuse the reference signaling as a reference and/or for training and/orfor compensation. The receiver can be informed about the referencesignaling by the transmitter, e.g. being configured and/or signalingwith control signaling, in particular physical layer signaling and/orhigher layer signaling (e.g., DCI and/or RRC signaling), and/or maydetermine the corresponding information itself, e.g. a network nodeconfiguring a UE to transmit reference signaling. Reference signalingmay be signaling comprising one or more reference symbols and/orstructures. Reference signaling may be adapted for gauging and/orestimating and/or representing transmission conditions, e.g. channelconditions and/or transmission path conditions and/or channel (or signalor transmission) quality. It may be considered that the transmissioncharacteristics (e.g., signal strength and/or form and/or modulationand/or timing) of reference signaling are available for both transmitterand receiver of the signaling (e.g., due to being predefined and/orconfigured or configurable and/or being communicated). Different typesof reference signaling may be considered, e.g. pertaining to uplink,downlink or sidelink, cell-specific (in particular, cell-wide, e.g.,CRS) or device or user specific (addressed to a specific target or userequipment, e.g., CSI-RS), demodulation-related (e.g., DMRS) and/orsignal strength related, e.g. power-related or energy-related oramplitude-related (e.g., SRS or pilot signaling) and/or phase-related,etc.

References to specific resource structures like transmission timingstructure and/or symbol and/or slot and/or mini-slot and/or subcarrierand/or carrier may pertain to a specific numerology, which may bepredefined and/or configured or configurable. A transmission timingstructure may represent a time interval, which may cover one or moresymbols. Some examples of a transmission timing structure aretransmission time interval (TTI), subframe, slot and mini-slot. A slotmay comprise a predetermined, e.g. predefined and/or configured orconfigurable, number of symbols, e.g. 6 or 7, or 12 or 14. A mini-slotmay comprise a number of symbols (which may in particular beconfigurable or configured) smaller than the number of symbols of aslot, in particular 1, 2, 3 or 4, or more symbols, e.g. less symbolsthan symbols in a slot. A transmission timing structure may cover a timeinterval of a specific length, which may be dependent on symbol timelength and/or cyclic prefix used. A transmission timing structure maypertain to, and/or cover, a specific time interval in a time stream,e.g. synchronized for communication. Timing structures used and/orscheduled for transmission, e.g. slot and/or mini-slots, may bescheduled in relation to, and/or synchronized to, a timing structureprovided and/or defined by other transmission timing structures. Suchtransmission timing structures may define a timing grid, e.g., withsymbol time intervals within individual structures representing thesmallest timing units. Such a timing grid may for example be defined byslots or subframes (wherein in some cases, subframes may be consideredspecific variants of slots). A transmission timing structure may have aduration (length in time) determined based on the durations of itssymbols, possibly in addition to cyclic prefix/es used. The symbols of atransmission timing structure may have the same duration, or may in somevariants have different duration. The number of symbols in atransmission timing structure may be predefined and/or configured orconfigurable, and/or be dependent on numerology. The timing of amini-slot may generally be configured or configurable, in particular bythe network and/or a network node. The timing may be configurable tostart and/or end at any symbol of the transmission timing structure, inparticular one or more slots.

There is generally considered a program product comprising instructionsadapted for causing processing and/or control circuitry to carry outand/or control any method described herein, in particular when executedon the processing and/or control circuitry. Also, there is considered acarrier medium arrangement carrying and/or storing a program product asdescribed herein.

A carrier medium arrangement may comprise one or more carrier media.Generally, a carrier medium may be accessible and/or readable and/orreceivable by processing or control circuitry. Storing data and/or aprogram product and/or code may be seen as part of carrying data and/ora program product and/or code. A carrier medium generally may comprise aguiding/transporting medium and/or a storage medium. Aguiding/transporting medium may be adapted to carry and/or carry and/orstore signals, in particular electromagnetic signals and/or electricalsignals and/or magnetic signals and/or optical signals. A carriermedium, in particular a guiding/transporting medium, may be adapted toguide such signals to carry them. A carrier medium, in particular aguiding/transporting medium, may comprise the electromagnetic field,e.g. radio waves or microwaves, and/or optically transmissive material,e.g. glass fiber, and/or cable. A storage medium may comprise at leastone of a memory, which may be volatile or non-volatile, a buffer, acache, an optical disc, magnetic memory, flash memory, etc.

A system comprising one or more radio nodes as described herein, inparticular a network node and a user equipment, is described. The systemmay be a wireless communication system, and/or provide and/or representa radio access network.

Moreover, there may be generally considered a method of operating aninformation system, the method comprising providing information.Alternatively, or additionally, an information system adapted forproviding information may be considered. Providing information maycomprise providing information for, and/or to, a target system, whichmay comprise and/or be implemented as radio access network and/or aradio node, in particular a network node or user equipment or terminal.Providing information may comprise transferring and/or streaming and/orsending and/or passing on the information, and/or offering theinformation for such and/or for download, and/or triggering suchproviding, e.g. by triggering a different system or node to streamand/or transfer and/or send and/or pass on the information. Theinformation system may comprise, and/or be connected or connectable to,a target, for example via one or more intermediate systems, e.g. a corenetwork and/or internet and/or private or local network. Information maybe provided utilising and/or via such intermediate system/s. Providinginformation may be for radio transmission and/or for transmission via anair interface and/or utilising a RAN or radio node as described herein.Connecting the information system to a target, and/or providinginformation, may be based on a target indication, and/or adaptive to atarget indication. A target indication may indicate the target, and/orone or more parameters of transmission pertaining to the target and/orthe paths or connections over which the information is provided to thetarget. Such parameter/s may in particular pertain to the air interfaceand/or radio access network and/or radio node and/or network node.Example parameters may indicate for example type and/or nature of thetarget, and/or transmission capacity (e.g., data rate) and/or latencyand/or reliability and/or cost, respectively one or more estimatesthereof. The target indication may be provided by the target, ordetermined by the information system, e.g. based on information receivedfrom the target and/or historical information, and/or be provided by auser, for example a user operating the target or a device incommunication with the target, e.g. via the RAN and/or air interface.For example, a user may indicate on a user equipment communicating withthe information system that information is to be provided via a RAN,e.g. by selecting from a selection provided by the information system,for example on a user application or user interface, which may be a webinterface. An information system may comprise one or more informationnodes. An information node may generally comprise processing circuitryand/or communication circuitry. In particular, an information systemand/or an information node may be implemented as a computer and/or acomputer arrangement, e.g. a host computer or host computer arrangementand/or server or server arrangement. In some variants, an interactionserver (e.g., web server) of the information system may provide a userinterface, and based on user input may trigger transmitting and/orstreaming information provision to the user (and/or the target) fromanother server, which may be connected or connectable to the interactionserver and/or be part of the information system or be connected orconnectable thereto. The information may be any kind of data, inparticular data intended for a user of for use at a terminal, e.g. videodata and/or audio data and/or location data and/or interactive dataand/or game-related data and/or environmental data and/or technical dataand/or traffic data and/or vehicular data and/or circumstantial dataand/or operational data. The information provided by the informationsystem may be mapped to, and/or mappable to, and/or be intended formapping to, communication or data signaling and/or one or more datachannels as described herein (which may be signaling or channel/s of anair interface and/or used within a RAN and/or for radio transmission).It may be considered that the information is formatted based on thetarget indication and/or target, e.g. regarding data amount and/or datarate and/or data structure and/or timing, which in particular may bepertaining to a mapping to communication or data signaling and/or a datachannel. Mapping information to data signaling and/or data channel/s maybe considered to refer to using the signaling/channel/s to carry thedata, e.g. on higher layers of communication, with thesignaling/channel/s underlying the transmission. A target indicationgenerally may comprise different components, which may have differentsources, and/or which may indicate different characteristics of thetarget and/or communication path/s thereto. A format of information maybe specifically selected, e.g. from a set of different formats, forinformation to be transmitted on an air interface and/or by a RAN asdescribed herein. This may be particularly pertinent since an airinterface may be limited in terms of capacity and/or of predictability,and/or potentially be cost sensitive. The format may be selected to beadapted to the transmission indication, which may in particular indicatethat a RAN or radio node as described herein is in the path (which maybe the indicated and/or planned and/or expected path) of informationbetween the target and the information system. A (communication) path ofinformation may represent the interface/s (e.g., air and/or cableinterfaces) and/or the intermediate system/s (if any), between theinformation system and/or the node providing or transferring theinformation, and the target, over which the information is, or is to be,passed on. A path may be (at least partly) undetermined when a targetindication is provided, and/or the information is provided/transferredby the information system, e.g. if an internet is involved, which maycomprise multiple, dynamically chosen paths. Information and/or a formatused for information may be packet-based, and/or be mapped, and/or bemappable and/or be intended for mapping, to packets. Alternatively, oradditionally, there may be considered a method for operating a targetdevice comprising providing a target indicating to an informationsystem. More alternatively, or additionally, a target device may beconsidered, the target device being adapted for providing a targetindication to an information system. In another approach, there may beconsidered a target indication tool adapted for, and/or comprising anindication module for, providing a target indication to an informationsystem. The target device may generally be a target as described above.A target indication tool may comprise, and/or be implemented as,software and/or application or app, and/or web interface or userinterface, and/or may comprise one or more modules for implementingactions performed and/or controlled by the tool. The tool and/or targetdevice may be adapted for, and/or the method may comprise, receiving auser input, based on which a target indicating may be determined and/orprovided. Alternatively, or additionally, the tool and/or target devicemay be adapted for, and/or the method may comprise, receivinginformation and/or communication signaling carrying information, and/oroperating on, and/or presenting (e.g., on a screen and/or as audio or asother form of indication), information. The information may be based onreceived information and/or communication signaling carryinginformation. Presenting information may comprise processing receivedinformation, e.g. decoding and/or transforming, in particular betweendifferent formats, and/or for hardware used for presenting. Operating oninformation may be independent of or without presenting, and/or proceedor succeed presenting, and/or may be without user interaction or evenuser reception, for example for automatic processes, or target deviceswithout (e.g., regular) user interaction like MTC devices, of forautomotive or transport or industrial use. The information orcommunication signaling may be expected and/or received based on thetarget indication. Presenting and/or operating on information maygenerally comprise one or more processing steps, in particular decodingand/or executing and/or interpreting and/or transforming information.Operating on information may generally comprise relaying and/ortransmitting the information, e.g. on an air interface, which mayinclude mapping the information onto signaling (such mapping maygenerally pertain to one or more layers, e.g. one or more layers of anair interface, e.g. RLC (Radio Link Control) layer and/or MAC layerand/or physical layer/s). The information may be imprinted (or mapped)on communication signaling based on the target indication, which maymake it particularly suitable for use in a RAN (e.g., for a targetdevice like a network node or in particular a UE or terminal). The toolmay generally be adapted for use on a target device, like a UE orterminal. Generally, the tool may provide multiple functionalities, e.g.for providing and/or selecting the target indication, and/or presenting,e.g. video and/or audio, and/or operating on and/or storing receivedinformation. Providing a target indication may comprise transmitting ortransferring the indication as signaling, and/or carried on signaling,in a RAN, for example if the target device is a UE, or the tool for aUE. It should be noted that such provided information may be transferredto the information system via one or more additionally communicationinterfaces and/or paths and/or connections. The target indication may bea higher-layer indication and/or the information provided by theinformation system may be higher-layer information, e.g. applicationlayer or user-layer, in particular above radio layers like transportlayer and physical layer. The target indication may be mapped onphysical layer radio signaling, e.g. related to or on the user-plane,and/or the information may be mapped on physical layer radiocommunication signaling, e.g. related to or on the user-plane (inparticular, in reverse communication directions). The describedapproaches allow a target indication to be provided, facilitatinginformation to be provided in a specific format particularly suitableand/or adapted to efficiently use an air interface. A user input may forexample represent a selection from a plurality of possible transmissionmodes or formats, and/or paths, e.g. in terms of data rate and/orpackaging and/or size of information to be provided by the informationsystem.

In general, a numerology and/or subcarrier spacing may indicate thebandwidth (in frequency domain) of a subcarrier of a carrier, and/or thenumber of subcarriers in a carrier and/or the numbering of thesubcarriers in a carrier, and/or the symbol time length. Differentnumerologies may in particular be different in the bandwidth of asubcarrier. In some variants, all the subcarriers in a carrier have thesame bandwidth associated to them. The numerology and/or subcarrierspacing may be different between carriers in particular regarding thesubcarrier bandwidth. A symbol time length, and/or a time length of atiming structure pertaining to a carrier may be dependent on the carrierfrequency, and/or the subcarrier spacing and/or the numerology. Inparticular, different numerologies may have different symbol timelengths, even on the same carrier.

Signaling may generally comprise one or more (e.g., modulation) symbolsand/or signals and/or messages. A signal may comprise or represent oneor more bits. An indication may represent signaling, and/or beimplemented as a signal, or as a plurality of signals. One or moresignals may be included in and/or represented by a message. Signaling,in particular control signaling, may comprise a plurality of signalsand/or messages, which may be transmitted on different carriers and/orbe associated to different signaling processes, e.g. representing and/orpertaining to one or more such processes and/or correspondinginformation. An indication may comprise signaling, and/or a plurality ofsignals and/or messages and/or may be comprised therein, which may betransmitted on different carriers and/or be associated to differentacknowledgement signaling processes, e.g. representing and/or pertainingto one or more such processes. Signaling associated to a channel may betransmitted such that represents signaling and/or information for thatchannel, and/or that the signaling is interpreted by the transmitterand/or receiver to belong to that channel. Such signaling may generallycomply with transmission parameters and/or format/s for the channel.

An antenna arrangement may comprise one or more antenna elements(radiating elements), which may be combined in antenna arrays. Anantenna array or subarray may comprise one antenna element, or aplurality of antenna elements, which may be arranged e.g. twodimensionally (for example, a panel) or three dimensionally. It may beconsidered that each antenna array or subarray or element is separatelycontrollable, respectively that different antenna arrays arecontrollable separately from each other. A single antennaelement/radiator may be considered the smallest example of a subarray.Examples of antenna arrays comprise one or more multi-antenna panels orone or more individually controllable antenna elements. An antennaarrangement may comprise a plurality of antenna arrays. It may beconsidered that an antenna arrangement is associated to a (specificand/or single) radio node, e.g. a configuring or informing or schedulingradio node, e.g. to be controlled or controllable by the radio node. Anantenna arrangement associated to a UE or terminal may be smaller (e.g.,in size and/or number of antenna elements or arrays) than the antennaarrangement associated to a network node. Antenna elements of an antennaarrangement may be configurable for different arrays, e.g. to change thebeamforming characteristics. In particular, antenna arrays may be formedby combining one or more independently or separately controllableantenna elements or subarrays. The beams may be provided by analogbeamforming, or in some variants by digital beamforming, or by hybridbeamforming combing analog and digital beamforming. The informing radionodes may be configured with the manner of beam transmission, e.g. bytransmitting a corresponding indicator or indication, for example asbeam identify indication. However, there may be considered cases inwhich the informing radio node/s are not configured with suchinformation, and/or operate transparently, not knowing the way ofbeamforming used. An antenna arrangement may be considered separatelycontrollable in regard to the phase and/or amplitude/power and/or gainof a signal feed to it for transmission, and/or separately controllableantenna arrangements may comprise an independent or separate transmitand/or receive unit and/or ADC (Analog-Digital-Converter, alternativelyan ADC chain) or DCA (Digital-to-Analog Converter, alternatively a DCAchain) to convert digital control information into an analog antennafeed for the whole antenna arrangement (the ADC/DCA may be consideredpart of, and/or connected or connectable to, antenna circuitry) or viceversa. A scenario in which an ADC or DCA is controlled directly forbeamforming may be considered an analog beamforming scenario; suchcontrolling may be performed after encoding/decoding and/or aftermodulation symbols have been mapped to resource elements. This may be onthe level of antenna arrangements using the same ADC/DCA, e.g. oneantenna element or a group of antenna elements associated to the sameADC/DCA. Digital beamforming may correspond to a scenario in whichprocessing for beamforming is provided before feeding signaling to theADC/DCA, e.g. by using one or more precoder/s and/or by precodinginformation, for example before and/or when mapping modulation symbolsto resource elements. Such a precoder for beamforming may provideweights, e.g. for amplitude and/or phase, and/or may be based on a(precoder) codebook, e.g. selected from a codebook. A precoder maypertain to one beam or more beams, e.g. defining the beam or beams. Thecodebook may be configured or configurable, and/or be predefined. DFTbeamforming may be considered a form of digital beamforming, wherein aDFT procedure is used to form one or more beams. Hybrid forms ofbeamforming may be considered.

A beam may be defined by a spatial and/or angular and/or spatial angulardistribution of radiation and/or a spatial angle (also referred to assolid angle) or spatial (solid) angle distribution into which radiationis transmitted (for transmission beamforming) or from which it isreceived (for reception beamforming). Reception beamforming may compriseonly accepting signals coming in from a reception beam (e.g., usinganalog beamforming to not receive outside reception beam/s), and/orsorting out signals that do not come in in a reception beam, e.g. indigital postprocessing, e.g. digital beamforming. A beam may have asolid angle equal to or smaller than 4*pi sr (4*pi correspond to a beamcovering all directions), in particular smaller than 2*pi, or pi, orpi/2, or pi/4 or pi/8 or pi/16. In particular for high frequencies,smaller beams may be used. Different beams may have different directionsand/or sizes (e.g., solid angle and/or reach). A beam may have a maindirection, which may be defined by a main lobe (e.g., center of the mainlobe, e.g. pertaining to signal strength and/or solid angle, which maybe averaged and/or weighted to determine the direction), and may haveone or more sidelobes. A lobe may generally be defined to have acontinuous or contiguous distribution of energy and/or power transmittedand/or received, e.g. bounded by one or more contiguous or contiguousregions of zero energy (or practically zero energy). A main lobe maycomprise the lobe with the largest signal strength and/or energy and/orpower content. However, sidelobes usually appear due to limitations ofbeamforming, some of which may carry signals with significant strength,and may cause multi-path effects. A sidelobe may generally have adifferent direction than a main lobe and/or other side lobes, however,due to reflections a sidelobe still may contribute to transmitted and/orreceived energy or power. A beam may be swept and/or switched over time,e.g., such that its (main) direction is changed, but its shape(angular/solid angle distribution) around the main direction is notchanged, e.g. from the transmitter's views for a transmission beam, orthe receiver's view for a reception beam, respectively. Sweeping maycorrespond to continuous or near continuous change of main direction(e.g., such that after each change, the main lobe from before the changecovers at least partly the main lobe after the change, e.g. at least to50 or 75 or 90 percent). Switching may correspond to switching directionnon-continuously, e.g. such that after each change, the main lobe frombefore the change does not cover the main lobe after the change, e.g. atmost to 50 or 25 or 10 percent.

Signal strength may be a representation of signal power and/or signalenergy, e.g. as seen from a transmitting node or a receiving node. Abeam with larger strength at transmission (e.g., according to thebeamforming used) than another beam does may not necessarily have largerstrength at the receiver, and vice versa, for example due tointerference and/or obstruction and/or dispersion and/or absorptionand/or reflection and/or attrition or other effects influencing a beamor the signaling it carries. Signal quality may in general be arepresentation of how well a signal may be received over noise and/orinterference. A beam with better signal quality than another beam doesnot necessarily have a larger beam strength than the other beam. Signalquality may be represented for example by SIR, SNR, SINR, BER, BLER,Energy per resource element over noise/interference or anothercorresponding quality measure. Signal quality and/or signal strength maypertain to, and/or may be measured with respect to, a beam, and/orspecific signaling carried by the beam, e.g. reference signaling and/ora specific channel, e.g. a data channel or control channel.

Uplink or sidelink signaling may be OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiple Access) or SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division MultipleAccess) signaling. Downlink signaling may in particular be OFDMAsignaling. However, signaling is not limited thereto (Filter-Bank basedsignaling and/or Single-Carrier based signaling, e.g. SC-FDE signaling,may be considered alternatives).

A radio node may generally be considered a device or node adapted forwireless and/or radio (and/or millimeter wave) frequency communication,and/or for communication utilising an air interface, e.g. according to acommunication standard.

A radio node may be a network node, or a user equipment or terminal. Anetwork node may be any radio node of a wireless communication network,e.g. a base station and/or gNodeB (gNB) and/or eNodeB (eNB) and/or relaynode and/or micro/nano/pico/femto node and/or transmission point (TP)and/or access point (AP) and/or other node, in particular for a RAN orother wireless communication network as described herein.

The terms user equipment (UE) and terminal may be considered to beinterchangeable in the context of this disclosure. A wireless device,user equipment or terminal may represent an end device for communicationutilising the wireless communication network, and/or be implemented as auser equipment according to a standard. Examples of user equipments maycomprise a phone like a smartphone, a personal communication device, amobile phone or terminal, a computer, in particular laptop, a sensor ormachine with radio capability (and/or adapted for the air interface), inparticular for MTC (Machine-Type-Communication, sometimes also referredto M2M, Machine-To-Machine), or a vehicle adapted for wirelesscommunication. A user equipment or terminal may be mobile or stationary.A wireless device generally may comprise, and/or be implemented as,processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, which may comprise one ormore chips or sets of chips. The circuitry and/or circuitries may bepackaged, e.g. in a chip housing, and/or may have one or more physicalinterfaces to interact with other circuitry and/or for power supply.Such a wireless device may be intended for use in a user equipment orterminal.

A radio node may generally comprise processing circuitry and/or radiocircuitry. A radio node, in particular a network node, may in some casescomprise cable circuitry and/or communication circuitry, with which itmay be connected or connectable to another radio node and/or a corenetwork.

Circuitry may comprise integrated circuitry. Processing circuitry maycomprise one or more processors and/or controllers (e.g.,microcontrollers), and/or ASICs (Application Specific IntegratedCircuitry) and/or FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array), or similar. Itmay be considered that processing circuitry comprises, and/or is(operatively) connected or connectable to one or more memories or memoryarrangements. A memory arrangement may comprise one or more memories. Amemory may be adapted to store digital information. Examples formemories comprise volatile and non-volatile memory, and/or Random AccessMemory (RAM), and/or Read-Only-Memory (ROM), and/or magnetic and/oroptical memory, and/or flash memory, and/or hard disk memory, and/orEPROM or EEPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM or Electrically ErasableProgrammable ROM).

Radio circuitry may comprise one or more transmitters and/or receiversand/or transceivers (a transceiver may operate or be operable astransmitter and receiver, and/or may comprise joint or separatedcircuitry for receiving and transmitting, e.g. in one package orhousing), and/or may comprise one or more amplifiers and/or oscillatorsand/or filters, and/or may comprise, and/or be connected or connectableto antenna circuitry and/or one or more antennas and/or antenna arrays.An antenna array may comprise one or more antennas, which may bearranged in a dimensional array, e.g. 2D or 3D array, and/or antennapanels. A remote radio head (RRH) may be considered as an example of anantenna array. However, in some variants, an RRH may be also beimplemented as a network node, depending on the kind of circuitry and/orfunctionality implemented therein.

Communication circuitry may comprise radio circuitry and/or cablecircuitry. Communication circuitry generally may comprise one or moreinterfaces, which may be air interface/s and/or cable interface/s and/oroptical interface/s, e.g. laser-based. Interface/s may be in particularpacket-based. Cable circuitry and/or a cable interfaces may comprise,and/or be connected or connectable to, one or more cables (e.g., opticalfiber-based and/or wire-based), which may be directly or indirectly(e.g., via one or more intermediate systems and/or interfaces) beconnected or connectable to a target, e.g. controlled by communicationcircuitry and/or processing circuitry.

Any one or all of the modules disclosed herein may be implemented insoftware and/or firmware and/or hardware. Different modules may beassociated to different components of a radio node, e.g. differentcircuitries or different parts of a circuitry. It may be considered thata module is distributed over different components and/or circuitries. Aprogram product as described herein may comprise the modules related toa device on which the program product is intended (e.g., a userequipment or network node) to be executed (the execution may beperformed on, and/or controlled by the associated circuitry).

A wireless communication network may be or comprise a radio accessnetwork and/or a backhaul network (e.g. a relay or backhaul network oran IAB network), and/or a Radio Access Network (RAN) in particularaccording to a communication standard. A communication standard may inparticular a standard according to 3GPP and/or 5G, e.g. according to NRor LTE, in particular LTE Evolution.

A wireless communication network may be and/or comprise a Radio AccessNetwork (RAN), which may be and/or comprise any kind of cellular and/orwireless radio network, which may be connected or connectable to a corenetwork. The approaches described herein are particularly suitable for a5G network, e.g. LTE Evolution and/or NR (New Radio), respectivelysuccessors thereof. A RAN may comprise one or more network nodes, and/orone or more terminals, and/or one or more radio nodes. A network nodemay in particular be a radio node adapted for radio and/or wirelessand/or cellular communication with one or more terminals. A terminal maybe any device adapted for radio and/or wireless and/or cellularcommunication with or within a RAN, e.g. a user equipment (UE) or mobilephone or smartphone or computing device or vehicular communicationdevice or device for machine-type-communication (MTC), etc. A terminalmay be mobile, or in some cases stationary. A RAN or a wirelesscommunication network may comprise at least one network node and a UE,or at least two radio nodes. There may be generally considered awireless communication network or system, e.g. a RAN or RAN system,comprising at least one radio node, and/or at least one network node andat least one terminal.

Transmitting in downlink may pertain to transmission from the network ornetwork node to the terminal. Transmitting in uplink may pertain totransmission from the terminal to the network or network node.Transmitting in sidelink may pertain to (direct) transmission from oneterminal to another. Uplink, downlink and sidelink (e.g., sidelinktransmission and reception) may be considered communication directions.In some variants, uplink and downlink may also be used to describedwireless communication between network nodes, e.g. for wireless backhauland/or relay communication and/or (wireless) network communication forexample between base stations or similar network nodes, in particularcommunication terminating at such. It may be considered that backhauland/or relay communication and/or network communication is implementedas a form of sidelink or uplink communication or similar thereto.

Control information or a control information message or correspondingsignaling (control signaling) may be transmitted on a control channel,e.g. a physical control channel, which may be a downlink channel or (ora sidelink channel in some cases, e.g. one UE scheduling another UE).For example, control information/allocation information may be signaledby a network node on PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) and/or aPDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) and/or a HARQ-specific channel.Acknowledgement signaling, e.g. as a form of control information orsignaling like uplink control information/signaling, may be transmittedby a terminal on a PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) and/or PUSCH(Physical Uplink Shared Channel) and/or a HARQ-specific channel.Multiple channels may apply for multi-component/multi-carrier indicationor signaling.

Signaling may generally be considered to represent an electromagneticwave structure (e.g., over a time interval and frequency interval),which is intended to convey information to at least one specific orgeneric (e.g., anyone who might pick up the signaling) target. A processof signaling may comprise transmitting the signaling. Transmittingsignaling, in particular control signaling or communication signaling,e.g. comprising or representing acknowledgement signaling and/orresource requesting information, may comprise encoding and/ormodulating. Encoding and/or modulating may comprise error detectioncoding and/or forward error correction encoding and/or scrambling.Receiving control signaling may comprise corresponding decoding and/ordemodulation. Error detection coding may comprise, and/or be based on,parity or checksum approaches, e.g. CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check).Forward error correction coding may comprise and/or be based on forexample turbo coding and/or Reed-Muller coding, and/or polar codingand/or LDPC coding (Low Density Parity Check). The type of coding usedmay be based on the channel (e.g., physical channel) the coded signal isassociated to. A code rate may represent the ratio of the number ofinformation bits before encoding to the number of encoded bits afterencoding, considering that encoding adds coding bits for error detectioncoding and forward error correction. Coded bits may refer to informationbits (also called systematic bits) plus coding bits.

Communication signaling may comprise, and/or represent, and/or beimplemented as, data signaling, and/or user plane signaling.Communication signaling may be associated to a data channel, e.g. aphysical downlink channel or physical uplink channel or physicalsidelink channel, in particular a PDSCH (Physical Downlink SharedChannel) or PSSCH (Physical Sidelink Shared Channel). Generally, a datachannel may be a shared channel or a dedicated channel. Data signalingmay be signaling associated to and/or on a data channel.

An indication generally may explicitly and/or implicitly indicate theinformation it represents and/or indicates. Implicit indication may forexample be based on position and/or resource used for transmission.Explicit indication may for example be based on a parametrisation withone or more parameters, and/or one or more index or indices, and/or oneor more bit patterns representing the information. It may in particularbe considered that control signaling as described herein, based on theutilised resource sequence, implicitly indicates the control signalingtype.

A resource element may generally describe the smallest individuallyusable and/or encodable and/or decodable and/or modulatable and/ordemodulatable time-frequency resource, and/or may describe atime-frequency resource covering a symbol time length in time and asubcarrier in frequency. A signal may be allocatable and/or allocated toa resource element. A subcarrier may be a subband of a carrier, e.g. asdefined by a standard. A carrier may define a frequency and/or frequencyband for transmission and/or reception. In some variants, a signal(jointly encoded/modulated) may cover more than one resource elements. Aresource element may generally be as defined by a correspondingstandard, e.g. NR or LTE. As symbol time length and/or subcarrierspacing (and/or numerology) may be different between different symbolsand/or subcarriers, different resource elements may have differentextension (length/width) in time and/or frequency domain, in particularresource elements pertaining to different carriers.

A resource generally may represent a time-frequency and/or coderesource, on which signaling, e.g. according to a specific format, maybe communicated, for example transmitted and/or received, and/or beintended for transmission and/or reception.

A border symbol may generally represent a starting symbol or an endingsymbol for transmitting and/or receiving. A starting symbol may inparticular be a starting symbol of uplink or sidelink signaling, forexample control signaling or data signaling. Such signaling may be on adata channel or control channel, e.g. a physical channel, in particulara physical uplink shared channel (like PUSCH) or a sidelink data orshared channel, or a physical uplink control channel (like PUCCH) or asidelink control channel. If the starting symbol is associated tocontrol signaling (e.g., on a control channel), the control signalingmay be in response to received signaling (in sidelink or downlink), e.g.representing acknowledgement signaling associated thereto, which may beHARQ or ARQ signaling. An ending symbol may represent an ending symbol(in time) of downlink or sidelink transmission or signaling, which maybe intended or scheduled for the radio node or user equipment. Suchdownlink signaling may in particular be data signaling, e.g. on aphysical downlink channel like a shared channel, e.g. a PDSCH (PhysicalDownlink Shared Channel). A starting symbol may be determined based on,and/or in relation to, such an ending symbol.

Configuring a radio node, in particular a terminal or user equipment,may refer to the radio node being adapted or caused or set and/orinstructed to operate according to the configuration. Configuring may bedone by another device, e.g., a network node (for example, a radio nodeof the network like a base station or eNodeB) or network, in which caseit may comprise transmitting configuration data to the radio node to beconfigured. Such configuration data may represent the configuration tobe configured and/or comprise one or more instruction pertaining to aconfiguration, e.g. a configuration for transmitting and/or receiving onallocated resources, in particular frequency resources. A radio node mayconfigure itself, e.g., based on configuration data received from anetwork or network node. A network node may utilise, and/or be adaptedto utilise, its circuitry/ies for configuring. Allocation informationmay be considered a form of configuration data. Configuration data maycomprise and/or be represented by configuration information, and/or oneor more corresponding indications and/or message/s

Generally, configuring may include determining configuration datarepresenting the configuration and providing, e.g. transmitting, it toone or more other nodes (parallel and/or sequentially), which maytransmit it further to the radio node (or another node, which may berepeated until it reaches the wireless device). Alternatively, oradditionally, configuring a radio node, e.g., by a network node or otherdevice, may include receiving configuration data and/or data pertainingto configuration data, e.g., from another node like a network node,which may be a higher-level node of the network, and/or transmittingreceived configuration data to the radio node. Accordingly, determininga configuration and transmitting the configuration data to the radionode may be performed by different network nodes or entities, which maybe able to communicate via a suitable interface, e.g., an X2 interfacein the case of LTE or a corresponding interface for NR. Configuring aterminal may comprise scheduling downlink and/or uplink transmissionsfor the terminal, e.g. downlink data and/or downlink control signalingand/or DCI and/or uplink control or data or communication signaling, inparticular acknowledgement signaling, and/or configuring resourcesand/or a resource pool therefor.

A resource structure may be considered to be neighbored in frequencydomain by another resource structure, if they share a common borderfrequency, e.g. one as an upper frequency border and the other as alower frequency border. Such a border may for example be represented bythe upper end of a bandwidth assigned to a subcarrier n, which alsorepresents the lower end of a bandwidth assigned to a subcarrier n+1. Aresource structure may be considered to be neighbored in time domain byanother resource structure, if they share a common border time, e.g. oneas an upper (or right in the figures) border and the other as a lower(or left in the figures) border. Such a border may for example berepresented by the end of the symbol time interval assigned to a symboln, which also represents the beginning of a symbol time intervalassigned to a symbol n+1.

Generally, a resource structure being neighbored by another resourcestructure in a domain may also be referred to as abutting and/orbordering the other resource structure in the domain.

A resource structure may general represent a structure in time and/orfrequency domain, in particular representing a time interval and afrequency interval. A resource structure may comprise and/or becomprised of resource elements, and/or the time interval of a resourcestructure may comprise and/or be comprised of symbol time interval/s,and/or the frequency interval of a resource structure may compriseand/or be comprised of subcarrier/s. A resource element may beconsidered an example for a resource structure, a slot or mini-slot or aPhysical Resource Block (PRB) or parts thereof may be considered others.A resource structure may be associated to a specific channel, e.g. aPUSCH or PUCCH, in particular resource structure smaller than a slot orPRB.

Examples of a resource structure in frequency domain comprise abandwidth or band, or a bandwidth part. A bandwidth part may be a partof a bandwidth available for a radio node for communicating, e.g. due tocircuitry and/or configuration and/or regulations and/or a standard. Abandwidth part may be configured or configurable to a radio node. Insome variants, a bandwidth part may be the part of a bandwidth used forcommunicating, e.g. transmitting and/or receiving, by a radio node. Thebandwidth part may be smaller than the bandwidth (which may be a devicebandwidth defined by the circuitry/configuration of a device, and/or asystem bandwidth, e.g. available for a RAN). It may be considered that abandwidth part comprises one or more resource blocks or resource blockgroups, in particular one or more PRBs or PRB groups. A bandwidth partmay pertain to, and/or comprise, one or more carriers.

A carrier may generally represent a frequency range or band and/orpertain to a central frequency and an associated frequency interval. Itmay be considered that a carrier comprises a plurality of subcarriers. Acarrier may have assigned to it a central frequency or center frequencyinterval, e.g. represented by one or more subcarriers (to eachsubcarrier there may be generally assigned a frequency bandwidth orinterval). Different carriers may be non-overlapping, and/or may beneighboring in frequency domain.

It should be noted that the term “radio” in this disclosure may beconsidered to pertain to wireless communication in general, and may alsoinclude wireless communication utilising millimeter waves, in particularabove one of the thresholds 10 GHz or 20 GHz or 50 GHz or 52 GHz or 52.6GHz or 60 GHz or 72 GHz or 100 GHz or 114 GHz. Such communication mayutilise one or more carriers, e.g. in FDD and/or carrier aggregation.Upper frequency boundaries may correspond to 300 GHz or 200 GHz or 120GHz or any of the thresholds larger than the one representing the lowerfrequency boundary.

A radio node, in particular a network node or a terminal, may generallybe any device adapted for transmitting and/or receiving radio and/orwireless signals and/or data, in particular communication data, inparticular on at least one carrier. The at least one carrier maycomprise a carrier accessed based on an LBT procedure (which may becalled LBT carrier), e.g., an unlicensed carrier. It may be consideredthat the carrier is part of a carrier aggregate.

Receiving or transmitting on a cell or carrier may refer to receiving ortransmitting utilizing a frequency (band) or spectrum associated to thecell or carrier. A cell may generally comprise and/or be defined by orfor one or more carriers, in particular at least one carrier for ULcommunication/transmission (called UL carrier) and at least one carrierfor DL communication/transmission (called DL carrier). It may beconsidered that a cell comprises different numbers of UL carriers and DLcarriers. Alternatively, or additionally, a cell may comprise at leastone carrier for UL communication/transmission and DLcommunication/transmission, e.g., in TDD-based approaches.

A channel may generally be a logical, transport or physical channel. Achannel may comprise and/or be arranged on one or more carriers, inparticular a plurality of subcarriers. A channel carrying and/or forcarrying control signaling/control information may be considered acontrol channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and/orif it carries control plane information. Analogously, a channel carryingand/or for carrying data signaling/user information may be considered adata channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and/or ifit carries user plane information. A channel may be defined for aspecific communication direction, or for two complementary communicationdirections (e.g., UL and DL, or sidelink in two directions), in whichcase it may be considered to have two component channels, one for eachdirection. Examples of channels comprise a channel for low latencyand/or high reliability transmission, in particular a channel forUltra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC), which may be forcontrol and/or data.

In general, a symbol may represent and/or be associated to a symbol timelength, which may be dependent on the carrier and/or subcarrier spacingand/or numerology of the associated carrier. Accordingly, a symbol maybe considered to indicate a time interval having a symbol time length inrelation to frequency domain. A symbol time length may be dependent on acarrier frequency and/or bandwidth and/or numerology and/or subcarrierspacing of, or associated to, a symbol. Accordingly, different symbolsmay have different symbol time lengths. In particular, numerologies withdifferent subcarrier spacings may have different symbol time length.Generally, a symbol time length may be based on, and/or include, a guardtime interval or cyclic extension, e.g. prefix or postfix.

A sidelink may generally represent a communication channel (or channelstructure) between two UEs and/or terminals, in which data istransmitted between the participants (UEs and/or terminals) via thecommunication channel, e.g. directly and/or without being relayed via anetwork node. A sidelink may be established only and/or directly via airinterface/s of the participant, which may be directly linked via thesidelink communication channel. In some variants, sidelink communicationmay be performed without interaction by a network node, e.g. on fixedlydefined resources and/or on resources negotiated between theparticipants. Alternatively, or additionally, it may be considered thata network node provides some control functionality, e.g. by configuringresources, in particular one or more resource pool/s, for sidelinkcommunication, and/or monitoring a sidelink, e.g. for charging purposes.

Sidelink communication may also be referred to as device-to-device (D2D)communication, and/or in some cases as ProSe (Proximity Services)communication, e.g. in the context of LTE. A sidelink may be implementedin the context of V2x communication (Vehicular communication), e.g. V2V(Vehicle-to-Vehicle), V2I (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure) and/or V2P(Vehicle-to-Person). Any device adapted for sidelink communication maybe considered a user equipment or terminal.

A sidelink communication channel (or structure) may comprise one or more(e.g., physical or logical) channels, e.g. a PSCCH (Physical SidelinkControl CHannel, which may for example carry control information like anacknowledgement position indication, and/or a PSSCH (Physical SidelinkShared CHannel, which for example may carry data and/or acknowledgementsignaling). It may be considered that a sidelink communication channel(or structure) pertains to and/or used one or more carrier/s and/orfrequency range/s associated to, and/or being used by, cellularcommunication, e.g. according to a specific license and/or standard.Participants may share a (physical) channel and/or resources, inparticular in frequency domain and/or related to a frequency resourcelike a carrier) of a sidelink, such that two or more participantstransmit thereon, e.g. simultaneously, and/or time-shifted, and/or theremay be associated specific channels and/or resources to specificparticipants, so that for example only one participant transmits on aspecific channel or on a specific resource or specific resources, e.g.,in frequency domain and/or related to one or more carriers orsubcarriers.

A sidelink may comply with, and/or be implemented according to, aspecific standard, e.g. an LTE-based standard and/or NR. A sidelink mayutilise TDD (Time Division Duplex) and/or FDD (Frequency DivisionDuplex) technology, e.g. as configured by a network node, and/orpreconfigured and/or negotiated between the participants. A userequipment may be considered to be adapted for sidelink communication ifit, and/or its radio circuitry and/or processing circuitry, is adaptedfor utilising a sidelink, e.g. on one or more frequency ranges and/orcarriers and/or in one or more formats, in particular according to aspecific standard. It may be generally considered that a Radio AccessNetwork is defined by two participants of a sidelink communication.Alternatively, or additionally, a Radio Access Network may berepresented, and/or defined with, and/or be related to a network nodeand/or communication with such a node.

Communication or communicating may generally comprise transmittingand/or receiving signaling. Communication on a sidelink (or sidelinksignaling) may comprise utilising the sidelink for communication(respectively, for signaling). Sidelink transmission and/or transmittingon a sidelink may be considered to comprise transmission utilising thesidelink, e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/orcircuitry and/or the air interface. Sidelink reception and/or receivingon a sidelink may be considered to comprise reception utilising thesidelink, e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/orcircuitry and/or the air interface. Sidelink control information (e.g.,SCI) may generally be considered to comprise control informationtransmitted utilising a sidelink.

Generally, carrier aggregation (CA) may refer to the concept of a radioconnection and/or communication link between a wireless and/or cellularcommunication network and/or network node and a terminal or on asidelink comprising a plurality of carriers for at least one directionof transmission (e.g. DL and/or UL), as well as to the aggregate ofcarriers. A corresponding communication link may be referred to ascarrier aggregated communication link or CA communication link; carriersin a carrier aggregate may be referred to as component carriers (CC). Insuch a link, data may be transmitted over more than one of the carriersand/or all the carriers of the carrier aggregation (the aggregate ofcarriers). A carrier aggregation may comprise one (or more) dedicatedcontrol carriers and/or primary carriers (which may e.g. be referred toas primary component carrier or PCC), over which control information maybe transmitted, wherein the control information may refer to the primarycarrier and other carriers, which may be referred to as secondarycarriers (or secondary component carrier, SCC). However, in someapproaches, control information may be sent over more than one carrierof an aggregate, e.g. one or more PCCs and one PCC and one or more SCCs.

A transmission may generally pertain to a specific channel and/orspecific resources, in particular with a starting symbol and endingsymbol in time, covering the interval therebetween. A scheduledtransmission may be a transmission scheduled and/or expected and/or forwhich resources are scheduled or provided or reserved. However, notevery scheduled transmission has to be realized. For example, ascheduled downlink transmission may not be received, or a scheduleduplink transmission may not be transmitted due to power limitations, orother influences (e.g., a channel on an unlicensed carrier beingoccupied). A transmission may be scheduled for a transmission timingsubstructure (e.g., a mini-slot, and/or covering only a part of atransmission timing structure) within a transmission timing structurelike a slot. A border symbol may be indicative of a symbol in thetransmission timing structure at which the transmission starts or ends.

Predefined in the context of this disclosure may refer to the relatedinformation being defined for example in a standard, and/or beingavailable without specific configuration from a network or network node,e.g. stored in memory, for example independent of being configured.Configured or configurable may be considered to pertain to thecorresponding information being set/configured, e.g. by the network or anetwork node.

A configuration or schedule, like a mini-slot configuration and/orstructure configuration, may schedule transmissions, e.g. for thetime/transmissions it is valid, and/or transmissions may be scheduled byseparate signaling or separate configuration, e.g. separate RRCsignaling and/or downlink control information signaling. Thetransmission/s scheduled may represent signaling to be transmitted bythe device for which it is scheduled, or signaling to be received by thedevice for which it is scheduled, depending on which side of acommunication the device is. It should be noted that downlink controlinformation or specifically DCI signaling may be considered physicallayer signaling, in contrast to higher layer signaling like MAC (MediumAccess Control) signaling or RRC layer signaling. The higher the layerof signaling is, the less frequent/the more time/resource consuming itmay be considered, at least partially due to the information containedin such signaling having to be passed on through several layers, eachlayer requiring processing and handling.

A scheduled transmission, and/or transmission timing structure like amini-slot or slot, may pertain to a specific channel, in particular aphysical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel, or aphysical downlink shared channel, e.g. PUSCH, PUCCH or PDSCH, and/or maypertain to a specific cell and/or carrier aggregation. A correspondingconfiguration, e.g. scheduling configuration or symbol configuration maypertain to such channel, cell and/or carrier aggregation. It may beconsidered that the scheduled transmission represents transmission on aphysical channel, in particular a shared physical channel, for example aphysical uplink shared channel or physical downlink shared channel. Forsuch channels, semi-persistent configuring may be particularly suitable.

Generally, a configuration may be a configuration indicating timing,and/or be represented or configured with corresponding configurationdata. A configuration may be embedded in, and/or comprised in, a messageor configuration or corresponding data, which may indicate and/orschedule resources, in particular semi-persistently and/orsemi-statically.

A control region of a transmission timing structure may be an intervalin time and/or frequency domain for intended or scheduled or reservedfor control signaling, in particular downlink control signaling, and/orfor a specific control channel, e.g. a physical downlink control channellike PDCCH. The interval may comprise, and/or consist of, a number ofsymbols in time, which may be configured or configurable, e.g. by(UE-specific) dedicated signaling (which may be single-cast, for exampleaddressed to or intended for a specific UE), e.g. on a PDCCH, or RRCsignaling, or on a multicast or broadcast channel. In general, thetransmission timing structure may comprise a control region covering aconfigurable number of symbols. It may be considered that in general theborder symbol is configured to be after the control region in time. Acontrol region may be associated, e.g. via configuration and/ordetermination, to one or more specific UEs and/or formats of PDCCHand/or DCI and/or identifiers, e.g. UE identifiers and/or RNTIs orcarrier/cell identifiers, and/or be represented and/or associated to aCORESET and/or a search space.

The duration of a symbol (symbol time length or interval) of thetransmission timing structure may generally be dependent on a numerologyand/or carrier, wherein the numerology and/or carrier may beconfigurable. The numerology may be the numerology to be used for thescheduled transmission.

Scheduling a device, or for a device, and/or related transmission orsignaling, may be considered comprising, or being a form of, configuringthe device with resources, and/or of indicating to the device resources,e.g. to use for communicating. Scheduling may in particular pertain to atransmission timing structure, or a substructure thereof (e.g., a slotor a mini-slot, which may be considered a substructure of a slot). Itmay be considered that a border symbol may be identified and/ordetermined in relation to the transmission timing structure even if fora substructure being scheduled, e.g. if an underlying timing grid isdefined based on the transmission timing structure. Signaling indicatingscheduling may comprise corresponding scheduling information and/or beconsidered to represent or contain configuration data indicating thescheduled transmission and/or comprising scheduling information. Suchconfiguration data or signaling may be considered a resourceconfiguration or scheduling configuration. It should be noted that sucha configuration (in particular as single message) in some cases may notbe complete without other configuration data, e.g. configured with othersignaling, e.g. higher layer signaling. In particular, the symbolconfiguration may be provided in addition to scheduling/resourceconfiguration to identify exactly which symbols are assigned to ascheduled transmission. A scheduling (or resource) configuration mayindicate transmission timing structure/s and/or resource amount (e.g.,in number of symbols or length in time) for a scheduled transmission.

A scheduled transmission may be transmission scheduled, e.g. by thenetwork or network node. Transmission may in this context may be uplink(UL) or downlink (DL) or sidelink (SL) transmission. A device, e.g. auser equipment, for which the scheduled transmission is scheduled, mayaccordingly be scheduled to receive (e.g., in DL or SL), or to transmit(e.g. in UL or SL) the scheduled transmission. Scheduling transmissionmay in particular be considered to comprise configuring a scheduleddevice with resource/s for this transmission, and/or informing thedevice that the transmission is intended and/or scheduled for someresources. A transmission may be scheduled to cover a time interval, inparticular a successive number of symbols, which may form a continuousinterval in time between (and including) a starting symbol and an endingsymbol. The starting symbol and the ending symbol of a (e.g., scheduled)transmission may be within the same transmission timing structure, e.g.the same slot. However, in some cases, the ending symbol may be in alater transmission timing structure than the starting symbol, inparticular a structure following in time. To a scheduled transmission, aduration may be associated and/or indicated, e.g. in a number of symbolsor associated time intervals. In some variants, there may be differenttransmissions scheduled in the same transmission timing structure. Ascheduled transmission may be considered to be associated to a specificchannel, e.g. a shared channel like PUSCH or PDSCH.

In the context of this disclosure, there may be distinguished betweendynamically scheduled or aperiodic transmission and/or configuration,and semi-static or semi-persistent or periodic transmission and/orconfiguration. The term “dynamic” or similar terms may generally pertainto configuration/transmission valid and/or scheduled and/or configuredfor (relatively) short timescales and/or a (e.g., predefined and/orconfigured and/or limited and/or definite) number of occurrences and/ortransmission timing structures, e.g. one or more transmission timingstructures like slots or slot aggregations, and/or for one or more(e.g., specific number) of transmission/occurrences. Dynamicconfiguration may be based on low-level signaling, e.g. controlsignaling on the physical layer and/or MAC layer, in particular in theform of DCI or SCI. Periodic/semi-static may pertain to longertimescales, e.g. several slots and/or more than one frame, and/or anon-defined number of occurrences, e.g., until a dynamic configurationcontradicts, or until a new periodic configuration arrives. A periodicor semi-static configuration may be based on, and/or be configured with,higher-layer signaling, in particular RCL layer signaling and/or RRCsignaling and/or MAC signaling.

A transmission timing structure may comprise a plurality of symbols,and/or define an interval comprising several symbols (respectively theirassociated time intervals). In the context of this disclosure, it shouldbe noted that a reference to a symbol for ease of reference may beinterpreted to refer to the time domain projection or time interval ortime component or duration or length in time of the symbol, unless it isclear from the context that the frequency domain component also has tobe considered. Examples of transmission timing structures include slot,subframe, mini-slot (which also may be considered a substructure of aslot), slot aggregation (which may comprise a plurality of slots and maybe considered a superstructure of a slot), respectively their timedomain component. A transmission timing structure may generally comprisea plurality of symbols defining the time domain extension (e.g.,interval or length or duration) of the transmission timing structure,and arranged neighboring to each other in a numbered sequence. A timingstructure (which may also be considered or implemented assynchronisation structure) may be defined by a succession of suchtransmission timing structures, which may for example define a timinggrid with symbols representing the smallest grid structures. Atransmission timing structure, and/or a border symbol or a scheduledtransmission may be determined or scheduled in relation to such a timinggrid. A transmission timing structure of reception may be thetransmission timing structure in which the scheduling control signalingis received, e.g. in relation to the timing grid. A transmission timingstructure may in particular be a slot or subframe or in some cases, amini-slot.

Feedback signaling may be considered a form or control signaling, e.g.uplink or sidelink control signaling, like UCI (Uplink ControlInformation) signaling or SCI (Sidelink Control Information) signaling.Feedback signaling may in particular comprise and/or representacknowledgement signaling and/or acknowledgement information and/ormeasurement reporting.

Signaling utilising, and/or on and/or associated to, resources or aresource structure may be signaling covering the resources or structure,signaling on the associated frequency/ies and/or in the associated timeinterval/s. It may be considered that a signaling resource structurecomprises and/or encompasses one or more substructures, which may beassociated to one or more different channels and/or types of signalingand/or comprise one or more holes (resource element/s not scheduled fortransmissions or reception of transmissions). A resource substructure,e.g. a feedback resource structure, may generally be continuous in timeand/or frequency, within the associated intervals. It may be consideredthat a substructure, in particular a feedback resource structure,represents a rectangle filled with one or more resource elements intime/frequency space. However, in some cases, a resource structure orsubstructure, in particular a frequency resource range, may represent anon-continuous pattern of resources in one or more domains, e.g. timeand/or frequency. The resource elements of a substructure may bescheduled for associated signaling.

It should generally be noted that the number of bits or a bit rateassociated to specific signaling that can be carried on a resourceelement may be based on a modulation and coding scheme (MCS). Thus, bitsor a bit rate may be seen as a form of resources representing a resourcestructure or range in frequency and/or time, e.g. depending on MCS. TheMCS may be configured or configurable, e.g. by control signaling, e.g.DCI or MAC (Medium Access Control) or RRC (Radio Resource Control)signaling.

Different formats of for control information may be considered, e.g.different formats for a control channel like a Physical Uplink ControlChannel (PUCCH). PUCCH may carry control information or correspondingcontrol signaling, e.g. Uplink Control Information (UCI). UCI maycomprise feedback signaling, and/or acknowledgement signaling like HARQfeedback (ACK/NACK), and/or measurement information signaling, e.g.comprising Channel Quality Information (CQI), and/or Scheduling Request(SR) signaling. One of the supported PUCCH formats may be short, and maye.g. occur at the end of a slot interval, and/or multiplexed and/orneighboring to PUSCH. Similar control information may be provided on asidelink, e.g. as Sidelink Control Information (SCI), in particular on a(physical) sidelink control channel, like a (P)SCCH.

A scheduling assignment may be configured with control signaling, e.g.downlink control signaling or sidelink control signaling. Such controlssignaling may be considered to represent and/or comprise schedulingsignaling, which may indicate scheduling information. A schedulingassignment may be considered scheduling information indicatingscheduling of signaling/transmission of signaling, in particularpertaining to signaling received or to be received by the deviceconfigured with the scheduling assignment. It may be considered that ascheduling assignment may indicate data (e.g., data block or elementand/or channel and/or data stream) and/or an (associated)acknowledgement signaling process and/or resource/s on which the data(or, in some cases, reference signaling) is to be received and/orindicate resource/s for associated feedback signaling, and/or a feedbackresource range on which associated feedback signaling is to betransmitted. Transmission associated to an acknowledgement signalingprocess, and/or the associated resources or resource structure, may beconfigured and/or scheduled, for example by a scheduling assignment.Different scheduling assignments may be associated to differentacknowledgement signaling processes. A scheduling assignment may beconsidered an example of downlink control information or signaling, e.g.if transmitted by a network node and/or provided on downlink (orsidelink control information if transmitted using a sidelink and/or by auser equipment).

A scheduling grant (e.g., uplink grant) may represent control signaling(e.g., downlink control information/signaling). It may be consideredthat a scheduling grant configures the signaling resource range and/orresources for uplink (or sidelink) signaling, in particular uplinkcontrol signaling and/or feedback signaling, e.g. acknowledgementsignaling. Configuring the signaling resource range and/or resources maycomprise configuring or scheduling it for transmission by the configuredradio node. A scheduling grant may indicate a channel and/or possiblechannels to be used/usable for the feedback signaling, in particularwhether a shared channel like a PUSCH may be used/is to be used. Ascheduling grant may generally indicate uplink resource/s and/or anuplink channel and/or a format for control information pertaining toassociated scheduling assignments. Both grant and assignment/s may beconsidered (downlink or sidelink) control information, and/or beassociated to, and/or transmitted with, different messages.

A resource structure in frequency domain (which may be referred to asfrequency interval and/or range) may be represented by a subcarriergrouping. A subcarrier grouping may comprise one or more subcarriers,each of which may represent a specific frequency interval, and/orbandwidth. The bandwidth of a subcarrier, the length of the interval infrequency domain, may be determined by the subcarrier spacing and/ornumerology. The subcarriers may be arranged such that each subcarrierneighbours at least one other subcarrier of the grouping in frequencyspace (for grouping sizes larger than 1). The subcarriers of a groupingmay be associated to the same carrier, e.g. configurably or configuredof predefined. A physical resource block may be consideredrepresentative of a grouping (in frequency domain). A subcarriergrouping may be considered to be associated to a specific channel and/ortype of signaling, its transmission for such channel or signaling isscheduled and/or transmitted and/or intended and/or configured for atleast one, or a plurality, or all subcarriers in the grouping. Suchassociation may be time-dependent, e.g. configured or configurable orpredefined, and/or dynamic or semi-static. The association may bedifferent for different devices, e.g. configured or configurable orpredefined, and/or dynamic or semi-static. Patterns of subcarriergroupings may be considered, which may comprise one or more subcarriergroupings (which may be associated to same or differentsignalings/channels), and/or one or more groupings without associatedsignaling (e.g., as seen from a specific device). An example of apattern is a comb, for which between pairs of groupings associated tothe same signaling/channel there are arranged one or more groupingsassociated to one or more different channels and/or signaling types,and/or one or more groupings without associated channel/signaling).

Example types of signaling comprise signaling of a specificcommunication direction, in particular, uplink signaling, downlinksignaling, sidelink signaling, as well as reference signaling (e.g., SRSor CRS or CSI-RS), communication signaling, control signaling, and/orsignaling associated to a specific channel like PUSCH, PDSCH, PUCCH,PDCCH, PSCCH, PSSCH, etc.).

In this disclosure, for purposes of explanation and not limitation,specific details are set forth (such as particular network functions,processes and signaling steps) in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the technique presented herein. It will be apparent toone skilled in the art that the present concepts and aspects may bepracticed in other variants and variants that depart from these specificdetails.

For example, the concepts and variants are partially described in thecontext of Long Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) or NewRadio mobile or wireless communications technologies; however, this doesnot rule out the use of the present concepts and aspects in connectionwith additional or alternative mobile communication technologies such asthe Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) or IEEE standards asIEEE 802.11ad or IEEE 802.11 ay. While described variants may pertain tocertain Technical Specifications (TSs) of the Third GenerationPartnership Project (3GPP), it will be appreciated that the presentapproaches, concepts and aspects could also be realized in connectionwith different Performance Management (PM) specifications.

Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the services,functions and steps explained herein may be implemented using softwarefunctioning in conjunction with a programmed microprocessor, or using anApplication Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Digital SignalProcessor (DSP), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or generalpurpose computer. It will also be appreciated that while the variantsdescribed herein are elucidated in the context of methods and devices,the concepts and aspects presented herein may also be embodied in aprogram product as well as in a system comprising control circuitry,e.g. a computer processor and a memory coupled to the processor, whereinthe memory is encoded with one or more programs or program products thatexecute the services, functions and steps disclosed herein.

It is believed that the advantages of the aspects and variants presentedherein will be fully understood from the foregoing description, and itwill be apparent that various changes may be made in the form,constructions and arrangement of the exemplary aspects thereof withoutdeparting from the scope of the concepts and aspects described herein orwithout sacrificing all of its advantageous effects. The aspectspresented herein can be varied in many ways.

There is generally disclosed:

A1. Method of operating a radio node (10, 100) in a wirelesscommunication network, the method comprising

-   -   communicating using a first set of one or more signaling beams,        wherein communicating comprises performing beamforming for one        or more signaling beams of the first set based on a set of beam        signaling characteristics, each beam signaling characteristic        pertaining to a reference beam.        A2. Radio node (10, 100) for a wireless communication network,        the radio node (10, 100) being adapted to    -   communicate using one or more signaling beams, wherein        communicating comprises performing beamforming for the one or        more signaling beams based on a set of beam signaling        characteristics, each beam signaling characteristic pertaining        to a reference beam.        A3. Method or device according to one of the preceding variants,        wherein the first set of signaling characteristics comprises a        plurality of subsets of signaling characteristics, each subset        pertaining to a different reference beam.        A4. Method or device according to one of the preceding variants,        wherein a beam signaling characteristic represents and/or        indicates a signal strength and/or signal quality and/or delay        spread of a beam.        A5. Method or device according to one of the preceding variants,        wherein a reference beam is one of a second set of reference        beams, the second set of reference beams being associated to the        set of beam signaling characteristics and/or the first set of        signaling beams.        A6. Method or device according to one of the preceding variants,        wherein a beam signaling characteristic is based on measurement        performed on reference signaling carried on the reference beam        it pertains to.        A7. Method or device according to one of the preceding variants,        wherein a reference beam carries reference signaling, the        reference signaling having a signaling structure comprising at        least one non-transmission time interval and at least one        transmission time interval.        A8. Method or device according to one of the preceding variants,        wherein a reference beam carries reference signaling, the        reference signaling having a signaling structure covering in        time the impulse response of the reference signaling.        A9. Method or device according to one of the preceding variants,        wherein communicating comprising utilising a numerology and/or        based on an OFDM and/or SC-FDM based waveform.        A10. Method or device according to one of the preceding        variants, wherein communicating comprises utilising a waveform        with cyclic prefix.        A11. Method or device according to one of the preceding        variants, wherein a beam of the first set of beams corresponds        to a reference beam.        A12. Method or device according to one of the preceding        variants, wherein a beam of the first set of signaling beams is        produced by performing analog beamforming on a beam        corresponding to a reference beam.        A13. Method or device according to one of the preceding        variants, wherein a beam of the first set of signaling beams is        produced by hybrid beamforming.        A14. Program product comprising instructions causing processing        circuitry to control and/or perform a method according to one of        variants A1 or A3 to A13.        A15. Carrier medium arrangement carrying and/or storing a        program product according to variant A14.

Some useful abbreviations comprise

Abbreviation Explanation

-   ACK/NACK Acknowledgment/Negative Acknowledgement-   ARQ Automatic Repeat reQuest-   BER Bit Error Rate-   BLER Block Error Rate-   CAZAC Constant Amplitude Zero Cross Correlation-   CB Code Block-   CBG Code Block Group-   CDM Code Division Multiplex-   CM Cubic Metric-   CORESET Control Resource Set-   CQI Channel Quality Information-   CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check-   CRS Common reference signal-   CSI Channel State Information-   CSI-RS Channel state information reference signal-   DAI Downlink Assignment Indicator-   DCI Downlink Control Information-   DFT Discrete Fourier Transform-   DM(-)RS Demodulation reference signal(ing)-   eMBB enhanced Mobile BroadBand-   FDD Frequency Division Duplex-   FDM Frequency Division Multiplex-   HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request-   IAB Integrated Access and Backhaul-   IFFT Inverse Fast Fourier Transform-   MBB Mobile Broadband-   MCS Modulation and Coding Scheme-   MIMO Multiple-input-multiple-output-   MRC Maximum-ratio combining-   MRT Maximum-ratio transmission-   MU-MIMO Multiuser multiple-input-multiple-output-   OFDM/A Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex/Multiple Access-   PAPR Peak to Average Power Ratio-   PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel-   PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel-   PRACH Physical Random Access CHannel-   PRB Physical Resource Block-   PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel-   PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel-   (P)SCCH (Physical) Sidelink Control Channel-   (P)SSCH (Physical) Sidelink Shared Channel-   RAN Radio Access Network-   RAT Radio Access Technology-   RB Resource Block-   RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier-   RRC Radio Resource Control-   SA Scheduling Assignment-   SC-FDE Single Carrier Frequency Domain Equalization-   SC-FDM/A Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiplex/Multiple Access-   SCI Sidelink Control Information-   SINR Signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio-   SIR Signal-to-interference ratio-   SNR Signal-to-noise-ratio-   SR Scheduling Request-   SRS Sounding Reference Signal(ing)-   SVD Singular-value decomposition-   TB Transport Block-   TDD Time Division Duplex-   TDM Time Division Multiplex-   UCI Uplink Control Information-   UE User Equipment-   URLLC Ultra Low Latency High Reliability Communication-   VL-MIMO Very-large multiple-input-multiple-output-   ZF Zero Forcing-   ZP Zero-Power, e.g. muted CSI-RS symbol

Abbreviations may be considered to follow 3GPP usage if applicable.

1. A method of operating a radio node in a wireless communicationnetwork, the method comprising: communicating using a first set of atleast one signaling beam, communicating comprising performingbeamforming for at least one signaling beam of the first set based on aset of beam signaling characteristics, each beam signalingcharacteristic pertaining to a reference beam.
 2. The method accordingto claim 1, wherein the first set of signaling characteristics comprisesa plurality of subsets of signaling characteristics, each subsetpertaining to a different reference beam.
 3. The method according toclaim 1, wherein a beam signaling characteristic at least one ofrepresents and indicates at least one of: a signal strength of a beam; asignal quality of a beam; and delay spread of a beam.
 4. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein a reference beam is one of a second set ofreference beams, the second set of reference beams being associated toat least one of: the set of beam signaling characteristics; and thefirst set of signaling beams.
 5. The method according to claim 1,wherein a beam signaling characteristic is based on measurementperformed on reference signaling carried on the reference beam itpertains to.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein a referencebeam carries reference signaling, the reference signaling having asignaling structure comprising at least one non-transmission timeinterval and at least one transmission time interval.
 7. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein a reference beam carries referencesignaling, the reference signaling having a signaling structure coveringin time the impulse response of the reference signaling.
 8. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein communicating comprises at least one of:utilising a numerology; based on an OFDM; and based on an SC-FDM basedwaveform.
 9. The method according to claim 1, wherein communicatingcomprises utilising a waveform with cyclic prefix.
 10. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein a beam of the first set of beamscorresponds to a reference beam.
 11. The method according to claim 1,wherein a beam of the first set of signaling beams is produced byperforming analog beamforming on a beam corresponding to a referencebeam.
 12. The method according to claim 1, wherein a beam of the firstset of signaling beams is produced by hybrid beamforming.
 13. A radionode for a wireless communication network, the radio node beingconfigured to: communicate using at least one signaling beam,communicating comprising performing beamforming for the at least onesignaling beam based on a set of beam signaling characteristics, eachbeam signaling characteristic pertaining to a reference beam.
 14. Astorage medium storing a program product comprising instructions causingprocessing circuitry to at least one of control and perform a method ofoperating a radio node in a wireless communication network, the methodcomprising: communicating using a first set of at least one signalingbeam, communicating comprising performing beamforming for at least onesignaling beam of the first set based on a set of beam signalingcharacteristics, each beam signaling characteristic pertaining to areference beam.